Pass the Parcel review – witty reckoning with a mother’s death
Royal Court, Liverpool
Bubbling with quirky detail, Sarah Whitehead’s full-length debut captures the contradictions of close relationships between sisters without sentimentality
The past hangs heavy over Sarah Whitehead’s full-length debut, but despite being set after a mother’s death, it is less about grief than about reckoning. The three sisters who gather in the family home in Liverpool are refreshingly matter of fact about their bereavement. Their loss is a prompt to reflect, bicker and pick at old wounds, but happily, it is not an excuse to be maudlin.
Whitehead is too witty a writer for that. Whether it is Mona (Jessica May Buxton) operating a chat line for people who get off on astronomy, Kelly (Katie Erich) being banned from Deliveroo or a running joke about a narcissistic priest, Pass the Parcel bubbles with quirky detail. Besides, the sisters know each other too well to get sentimental, even if they do enjoy raking up old grievances.
At the Royal Court, Liverpool, until 8 February
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